Ads creep onto magazine covers

Traditionally, and until recently, it was a generally accepted rule that the cover of a magazine was editorial space, free of advertising. In both Canada and the U.S. there are guidelines to that effect. But as an article in the New York Times notes, uncertain times drive flexibility and changes, one of which is that advertising seems to be creeping onto covers.

The hook for the article was an ad on the corner of the cover of Scholastic Parent & Child magazine, a publishing decision that is a first in the 16-year history of the magazine. The ad is for a company called Smilebox and the ad carries the tiny label "advertisement". Another is planned for May, being bought by Nestlé for a line of beverages called Juicy Line. An advertiser buying the cover-corner ad has to buy at least one full page inside and the total cost is $80,000+.

“There was a lot of thought put into it,” said Nick Friedman, the editor in chief of Scholastic Parent & Child. “We knew it was envelope-pushing.”...

The ads represent the first time that Smilebox has advertised in Scholastic Parent & Child, said Yannis Dosios, vice president for marketing at Smilebox in Redmond, Wash.

The appropriateness of a cover ad “was something that crossed my mind initially,” he added. “It has to work within the context of the magazine, otherwise it will be very outlandish.”

The February cover of Esquire carried a window or flap in the middle of its cover which, when opened, revealed an ad for the Discovery Channel.

“Clearly, there are changes in the marketplace,” said Sid Holt, [chief executive of the American Society of Magazine Editors], “and editors want to be supportive of their publishing colleagues and maintain the viability of magazines.”

Although “we don’t want to be in the position of telling people how to run their businesses,” he added, “the guidelines are very clear that the cover is editorial space and advertising should not appear.”

One of the reasons the article cited for relaxation of the rigid proscription of ads on covers was that online media competitors have less stringent policies about where ads may appear.

The home pages of Web sites, which could be compared to magazine covers, carry ads, from static banners to video clips to elaborate units known as home-page takeovers. The Online Publishers Association introduced on Tuesday several ad formats that are outside the banner box, among them a “pushdown,” which opens to display a bigger ad.

“As we’ve started to explore new ad initiatives, especially on the Web, it’s made us start to think about different approaches for print,” Ms. Crandall [vice president for the Scholastic Parents Media unit] said.

“Readers are steeped in the Web and print and think of them together as one,” she added, so ads on magazine covers “are not for them such a grand departure from tradition.”

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